So we made the switch to our new studio this year, and are very happy for the most part. I have a few of the old parents on my social media and then ran into one of the moms not too long. I found out that only 1 person from my DD's class went back this year (her mom got in pretty good with owner lol). That's not including the 2 who dropped out after about 2-3 months. One actually went back to her old studio. So the studio lost an entire class of kids, granted it was a small class and young kids, but the studio I'm at now, I would say the majority of the kids start there pre-school age, and never leave.

One of the many reasons we left the old studio was my general feeling that they ran the recreational classes very unprofessionally (especially the young ones) and only cared about the comp. classes. So, if you owned a studio, and had tons of kids going for a year, or even a few months and leaving, wouldn't you kind of think something was going wrong?

I would think that a studio would be concerned with retaining dancers, and I think a large exodus of students should signal a problem. However, my dd's old studio lost almost half of its comp team over 12 years of age last year. Parents who left were asked why they were leaving, so direct feedback on areas for improvement were noted. However, from what I hear, no changes have been made. They just added in lots of minis to compensate.

This is what happens continually at dd's former studio. We didn't realize when we first signed up that there was a mass exodus right after nationals. Then there was a huge exodus (including us) just 2 years later. SOs think they are right and the problems is the students/parents so they re-invented themselves. It used to be Mother & 2 adult daughters. Mother filed for bankruptcy and daughters opened a new studio under a slightly new names. Pretty much everyone we knew except for a handful of studio favorites left. I'm sure they attracted a bunch of new suckers but honestly I don't know how they don't get that there is something wrong with what they are doing. Dd's 1st studio while not the best fit for DD has been in business for 40 years with the same SO. She's in the process of turning it over to her daughter.

We're having trouble. Another studio came to town, and we have been losing girls ever since. DD assists a class that has 2 girls. Her ballet class had 6, and she switched classes because it became a mixed level class just to keep it on the roster (so the 6 ranged in level from int- jr adv). She switched to a ballet all her level, and it has 4 girls. There is one ballet class that became a private, and one class that got dropped and the spot given to a girl for her solo because they couldn't fill it. The team is noticeably smaller, too. I think we only had 3 new girls audition for our team this year, and we cover from age 8-18. We had over a dozen leave either for school teams or other studios.

Sounds like our current studio. It's not the SO, but the main DT who's blatant favoritism to family over talent and extreme lack of communication. They focus on the company girls which would be fine, but when you don't have new kids coming in or staying long enough to join company, the company can only last so long.

I've given a few stipulations and if they aren't met we are moving to a longer standing, better structured studio even though it's a bit further away.

Every studio has people come and go. Sometimes it's just because people feel that the grass is always greener on the other side, or their child isn't getting the attention they feel that he/she deserves, and not necessarily because the studio isn't being run well.

Originally Posted by DancinandlovinitEvery studio has people come and go. Sometimes it's just because people feel that the grass is always greener on the other side, or their child isn't getting the attention they feel that he/she deserves, and not necessarily because the studio isn't being run well.

True but large amounts of students leaving on a regular basis is a different issue.

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